My cousin [waves to cuz] recently scanned our grandmother's vacation journal from the late 40's and early 50's and sent it to me. What a treat! It was so fun to read her thoughts as she and the family traveled the country in the brand new Cadillac. I loved her ratings for places that they stayed, such as P.U.! My father even wrote a few entries in it, which seemed rather surreal to me. Seeing his handwriting and reading his teenage thoughts made him a little more real for me. It made me kind of wistful.

I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to surprise my "new" grandmother for her birthday by flying my boys out to meet her. I want them to meet her just as much as I want her to meet them. They are just as excited (or at least pretend to be!) about learning all of these new things and meeting these new people as I am.

My grandmother has been on my mind a lot for the past few days and so I finally broke down and called her today. Have I mentioned what a sweet voice my 92 year old grandmother has? Well she does! She sounds just like a grandmother! I just love hearing the joy in her voice when she hears it's me on the other end, and I have no doubt that anyone who calls her gets the exact same reaction. She is just a joyful person. I suspect that has a lot to do with why she's 92 years old and still kickin'. [RisibleGirl is taking notes]

She mentioned that she was leaving soon to go get her eyes checked because she was sure she needed new glasses. I shared with her my horror that my eyes are showing their age and I need bifocals. Her response? "Oh honey, don't knock it. Bifocals are WONDERFUL". Tee hee- my grandmother says, "don't knock it".

She told me that she keeps the 8x10 wedding picture that I sent her on the table next to her couch so she can kiss it whenever she wants to. Isn't that just the sweetest thing you've ever heard? Yeah, I know- I sound like s silly school girl, don't I?

I decided to go ahead and tell her that I would like to bring my boys to meet her in February for her birthday and she was just thrilled. As far as I'm concerned, February can't come soon enough! When I told her that I know she'll love my boys because they're really good boys she said, "of course they are, because you're their mama". That's the biggest compliment anyone could ever give me.

So, the cat is out of the bag. Now I need to watch for good prices for flights. Four tickets- yeouch! but worth every penny.